Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Hannah

We haven't had haircuts in quite a while. I haven't had mine cut since before we went out west and I trimmed the boys' hair earlier in the fall, but they haven't been to a salon in a while. Yesterday we decided to take everyone and have haircuts.

I took the children over early and had all the boys' hair cut and my own cut, then Chris met us there after he got off work to have his cut. I left to spend some time with Sarah, even though that didn't go so well because I was incredibly sick by that time and I ended up having to go home and go straight to bed. Anyway, while Chris was having his hair cut, Hannah stood there watching.

While the beautician was cutting his hair, Hannah looked up at her and said matter of factly, "Daddy has lice."

Of course you can imagine the reaction to that.

When I asked Hannah why she said that to the beautician, she said, "I just thought it was funny and wanted to see what would happen."

Today I had about an hour when I felt well enough to clean a little. I was trying to do all the dishes and I asked Hannah to wipe down the cabinets for me. She was standing there washing the cabinets and asked, "Is slavery still legal?"

Hmmmm.... I'm going to have to keep an eye on this verbose little thinker.

Sonya
www.thehomeschooladvocate.com

Tuesday, January 27, 2009

Water Lily Picture


I took this photo last summer fall when we were in Chattanooga visiting my family. I absolutely love it! Actually, we all liked it so much that the children made it the background on my computer. My friend said I should start entering photo contests. I LOVE to take photos and I particularly like nature pictures.

I have some more pretty flower pictures I hope to post in the next few days... especially since they were taken about four months ago!

Sonya : )

Thursday, January 22, 2009

Will Obama Require Homeschools to be Accredited?

I followed Obama's comments, speeches, and policy postings closely while he was running for president and he said very little in regards to home education although he made it very clear that he fully supported the NEA (National Education Association).

On the government website, under Obama's Education policy, it states that:

"Obama and Biden will require all schools of education to be accredited. Obama and Biden will also create a voluntary national performance assessment so we can be sure that every new educator is trained and ready to walk into the classroom and start teaching effectively."

I have sent a note to the White House requesting clarification of this statement. It says they will require ALL schools of education to be accredited. Does this apply to homeschoolers?

I don't really expect an answer since there were similar statements in his campaign literature so I asked the same question then and received no reply.

Someone was reading my blog recently and forwarded me the following Q/A from Suburban Journals.

Q. Do you support home schooling?

A. Barack Obama respects the decisions reached by some parents to home school their children, provided those parents are conforming to the laws and regulations set forward by their states governing home-based instruction.

Again, this sounds good, but if you look closely at the wording, he still has not said he SUPPORTS HOMESCHOOLING!!! He says he supports the "decisions" of "some parents" to home school. Let's stop there for a minute. It's a "decision," not a "right." Second, he says "some parents," not "parents."

Also, he says "provided those parents are conforming to the laws and regulations..." All states don't have laws about homeschooling. It's legal in all states, but it sounds to me like the new President Obama wants to ensure that all educators (including homeschoolers) have had the government's stamp of approval - through assessment or accreditation. No, this hasn't been spelled out, but sometimes you can read between the lines even if you don't have a teaching certificate.

Sonya Haskins
www.thehomeschooladvocate.com

Wednesday, January 21, 2009

Thoughts about the Inauguration

Today as the nation celebrated the inauguration of President Obama, I saw people shouting praises, bowing to him, and raising their hands in celebration.

I've read many things on the Internet today - some people made statements dictating how we should support Obama now that he is president, whether or not we agree with him or voted for him. Others declare that we should pray for his failure.

There were many things I've thought about the whole situation and I've written about much of it on my blog. I've almost tired of writing about it all.

This morning as we prepared to watch the inauguration, I read a post describing how Obama had patterned his inaugural activities after that of President Abraham Lincoln. Despite claims to the contrary, I'm pretty sure the similarities ended with the swearing in on the same Bible. Certainly Lincoln and Obama had very different motives in seeking the presidency and certainly Lincoln would have been horrified at the amount of money spent on these events when our country's economy flounders.

So while Obama talked about change, my children and I huddled in the one "warm room" in our house - the only room with a fireplace - to watch the inauguration on a computer that kept freezing up because there were so many people trying to watch the webcasts. We don't have television so the computer was our only option. We finally turned off the computer and sat there reading books by the fireplace, trying to keep warm. Later, we ate scalloped potatoes (made from two $1.00 boxes) for lunch while Obama et al. dined on Maine lobsters, roasted duck, sumptuous desserts, and expensive wines. Change. If the expenditures this week are any indication, we will still be living frugally throughout the next four years while the politicians in Washington continue to spend extravagant amounts of taxpayer money to benefit the elite.

So am I upset by all this? Do I agree with the people who say we should support them or those who say it is Biblical to pray for his failure. Actually, today I've been thinking all day about a couple of verses from the Psalms. They pretty much say it all.

"Great is the LORD and most worthy of praise; his greatness no one can fathom" Psalm 145:3

"Praise the Lord, all you nations; extol him, all you peoples. For great is his love toward us, and the faithfulness of the Lord endures forever. Praise the Lord." Psalm 117

The Lord IS great and WORTHY of praise - from all nations and all peoples. God's kingdom will prevail as his faithfulness endures FOREVER. And his love toward us is great.

How fortunate we are to be blessed with such an awesome God!

How awesome IS our God!

Leaders have come and gone, but the faithfulness of the Lord endures forever!

Sonya Haskins
www.thehomeschooladvocate.com

Sunday, January 18, 2009

Continuing to deal with chronic pain

As we feared would happen once I started taking the blood thinners again, I started having some headaches a couple of weeks ago and since last Wednesday, I've had a headache that won't go away. It doesn't seem to matter how much headache medicine I take. These headaches are a reaction to the blood thinners so nothing works to make them stop except to stop taking the blood thinners, which I can't really do without a high risk of dying. We were hopeful that this wouldn't happen this time, but it has. I have to go back to the doctor this week to see if we can find something - perhaps a Beta Blocker - that I might be able to take every day to actually prevent the headaches rather than taking something to try to get rid of them once they've already started, since that obviously doesn't work. Please pray that we'll find another option. On top of that, all week I've been having more severe abdominal and leg pain. I'm starting to feel like a walking time bomb, but I know that the Bible says:

"Because he loves me," says the LORD, "I will rescue him;
I will protect him, for he acknowledges my name.

He will call upon me, and I will answer him;
I will be with him in trouble,
I will deliver him and honor him.

With long life will I satisfy him
and show him my salvation."
Psalm 91:14-16

I generally can't stand complaining (by me or anyone else) so I really try to act like everything is ok, but it is not. I am going to go crazy if I can't get rid of these headaches. I will NOT let this stop me from living, though, so I'm still writing and working a few hours per week and doing as much as I can with the children. I am happy to answer questions and do the regular work I've been doing with homeschooling. If anything, it helps me focus on something else besides the pain for a while so I'm glad to have distraction. Otherwise, I still just have to sleep a lot and that's good, too, except for the fact that I don't get much done. : )

If you are dealing with the same sorts of issues, please know that I do understand what you are going through. I talk with homeschool moms all the time who have been inspired by the posts I've made on chronic pain and they are encouraged. I think it is helpful to others simply to know that they ARE NOT ALONE in their suffering. Sometimes, especially with pain - whether physical or emotional - it's easy to feel like you're completely isolated from the rest of the world and everyone else goes around acting completely normal while you are suffering so badly. I used to tell Chris, my husband, when I was in severe pain, that I honestly couldn't understand how people could just be walking around acting like things were normal and life was good. Even though I lived without pain before I got sick and I fully understand that you can't FEEL someone else's pain, I got to the point where it was so bad that I just didn't understand how they couldn't feel my pain. It's almost like the pain was so severe that I expected it to flow out of me and others would feel it as well. I know that sounds silly, but when you have pain that is debilitating, it is so all-consuming that it's all you can think about. I understand this.

If you need a sympathetic ear, e-mail me. It is NOT easy to homeschool when you live with chronic illness, but it CAN be done!

Yours truly,
Sonya

www.thehomeschooladvocate.com

Thursday, January 15, 2009

An attitude of gratitude

I heard something today that really made me think.

A man was talking about his life and growing up in the Great Depression. During that time, when he was 12 years old, his father died, leaving his mother with 7 young children, no money, and no income.

This man said that he remembered his mom, like a mother hen, huddling all the children around the casket at his father's funeral. She looked down at his father, with the children there in front of her and said, "Look at what you've left me with..."

And I fully expected her to say something like, "all these children, no money, and what am I supposed to do?"

But instead, she said, "Look at what you've left me with" and she looked at the children, "something that is worth more than all the gold in the world. THANK YOU."

Wow.

I am so thankful for this wonderful example of gratitude, faith, and devotion. I hope it encourages you today as it has me.

Sonya Haskins
mom, author, homeschool advocate
www.sonyahaskins.com

Wednesday, January 14, 2009

Looking for homeschoolers to complete an interview for my new book

I am so excited about the new book I’m writing! The focus of the book is stress-proof homeschooling. Sometimes I think it’s very ironic that the Lord has called me to write a book about reducing stress when I'm struggling through it daily! However, unlike many other products on the market, I have no intention of telling you “the right way” to homeschool. Instead, I'll be compiling the best insight, advice, suggestions, and interviews from dozens of homeschool families. That way, readers can pick and choose what will work in their own unique family environment. I learned long ago that one of the tricks of good parenting is to glean the best advice from many different sources and to evaluate my parenting on a regular basis so that I can make improvements as necessary.

I am currently looking for families who are willing to share a bit of their story, answer a few questions, offer some advice, or simply share an anecdote or two related to homeschooling. You do NOT have to be a perfect family to provide feedback for the book. Actually, if your homeschooling is more like The Three Stooges than Leave it to Beaver, then you’re just the person I’m looking for!! Actually, I’ll share stories from many different kinds of families, but I do encourage everyone to respond.

If you're willing to complete an interview, please e-mail me at sonya@sonyahaskins.com. I believe this book will be a real blessing to other families, particularly new homeschoolers. If you could please forward this request to all your homeschool friends, e-mail loops, digests, websites, blogs, etc., I would GREATLY appreciate it! I don’t usually ask for people to forward things, but most people do not take the time to reply and I’m going to need to reach literally hundreds of people (moms, dads, students, even previous homeschoolers) in order to get the responses that I’ll include in the book. I certainly don’t have all the answers. In this book, the best information from many different homeschoolers will be in one terrific resource!

Thank you for taking the time to read, post, forward, and answer this e-mail! The interviews are ready so as soon as I receive a request, I will forward that to you. If you’d like to read more about me or my family before you reply, visit www.thehomeschooladvocate.com or www.sonyahaskins.com. I will be accepting interviews until the end of February so please request one as soon as possible and forward this to your friends today.

I look forward to hearing from you and reading your stories!

Sincerely,
Sonya Haskins, author The Homeschooler’s Book of Lists

P.S. If you are a blogger, you are welcome to post this on your blog. I should have started these interviews over a month ago, but I deal with chronic health problems and I've been very sick again lately. I was in the hospital in December for a week and since then I've simply been trying to recover. The Lord has blessed me greatly by allowing me to write and it never ceases to amaze me that he allows me to do what I love, but it's funny to me that he has most recently called me to write this book about relieving stress in your homeschool household. I know I'll get it done because he has called me to do it, but I'm going to need some help finding families to interview. Thank you for posting this to your own blogs as well!

Sunday, January 11, 2009

Seeking Perfection

Chris took the children to church this morning while I rested. Even though I pray all the time, study my Bible regularly, and truly worship God in my heart without church, I still don’t like to miss church. My pastor gives the best sermons in the world and it’s nice to visit with fellow believers. When I can’t go, Chris and the children tell me about the sermon when they come home. That’s good, but it’s not the same as hearing it myself.

Sometimes our pastor plays a short video clip of missionaries or something pertaining to the sermon. This morning the children and Chris came home telling me how powerful the video was that he used today. You can view it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yX_7j32zgNw It’s amazing! The video is a sermon entitled “That’s My King!” by S.M. Lockridge. Take six minutes of your day to watch it. It will thoroughly inspire you!

As Chris and the children were telling me about the service, Chris also mentioned that a new family visited today. He thought I might know them because they homeschool and have ten children. I immediately thought I knew who he was talking about and I said, “Were they perfect? Sitting in the pews quietly? Dressed neatly? Etc.?”

Chris thought for a moment and said, “Yes, they were.”

He gave me a kind of funny look and Sarah said, “Mommy doesn’t like perfect,” as if that would explain everything.

Although I denied this fact, I couldn’t help but think of my wonderful editor. We’ve had many discussions on this topic and I immediately thought, “Gee, it’s pretty bad that my editor would probably agree with my 12-year-old daughter on this topic!”

Instead of saying that, I said out loud, “Oh yeah, I know who they are. That’s the ___ family. They are as sweet as can be.”

“You don’t mind that they are perfect,” he asked, imitating the way I had said the word.
“Oh, no,” I said, “Of course not, but they are pretty perfect.”

I told him how the mom had shared at a mom’s meeting one time how a new homeschooling mom had asked how to reduce her stress. This mother replied that she didn’t have any stress because they followed a strict schedule so everyone knows what needs to be done when. They get up at 6:00 and all the children are responsible for getting dressed and doing morning chores by 7:00, when they have to be at the breakfast table. They eat a full breakfast every morning with dad before he leaves for work so that he can do Bible study with them. Then they clean up the dishes and start school at 8:00. They do school for four hours and then break for lunch at noon. The children rotate lunch and dinner duty so that mom doesn’t have to cook the meals. After lunch, they have quiet time, then play time before dinner. After dinner, which is served at 6:00, they have family time for a couple of hours and then the children are in bed at 8:00.

I remember watching the reaction of the new homeschool mom as this veteran homeschooler was sharing this information. The new homeschooler looked as if her eyes would pop out of her head.

To ease her mind and help her get her eyes back into their sockets, I said, “Actually, I think that might drive the average person insane!

“You don’t have to do it that way,” I stated.

The veteran homeschool mom is one of the sweetest people I know and I was quick to acknowledge to the group present that if they were able to manage their household so efficiently and maintain a schedule so expertly, then by all means they should do so. That is a wonderful way to train your children about scheduling, discipline, responsibility, commitment, etc. However, I also think that it’s just not possible for some families to maintain such structure and if they try to do it and can’t, it’s a greater source of frustration and stress than they had to begin with.

I really am not against “perfection,” but rather the idea that we can attain it. Perfection is attained through the only one who is perfect – the Lord Jesus Christ. Also, it’s very easy to look at someone else’s situation and desire to be like them, but God gives each of us our own unique abilities and challenges. Instead of worrying about or comparing yourself to others, seek the Lord’s will for your life – and your homeschool.

Rather than seeking perfection or an idea of perfection that you’ve developed by observing someone else or creating an ideal world in your mind, seek the Lord. Seek God. Know God. Love God. Obey God. If you do this, the rest will follow and it doesn’t much matter if you follow a strict or a flexible schedule so long as you have the Light to guide you.

Sonya
http://www.thehomeschooladvocate.com/


“But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.” Matthew 6:33

Sometimes a gourd is just a gourd

For several years now, I’ve noticed that my mom has been losing her memory. She frequently doesn’t remember things that did happen and she “remembers” things that didn’t really happen. Some of those memories involve me as she will insist that she did something that was actually me or she’ll insist that I did or didn’t do something that I actually didn’t or did do.

This year for Christmas, Momma gave me a gift bag that said “From the Past.” That should have been a red flag right there. The contained two little Christmas ornaments that I cross-stitched when I was about ten and a gourd that was painted like an old-fashioned Santa Clause.
Now I clearly recall cross-stitching the little Christmas ornaments and putting them into the little frames for the Christmas tree. The gourd, however, is a different story. I said to my mom, “Mom, I didn’t pain this gourd.”

“Yes, you did,” she replied.

“Momma,” I began, “I don’t recall ever seeing this little gourd before, but even if I did see it before, I certainly didn’t paint it. Look. It’s professionally painted.”

My mother looked closely at the gourd and began telling me how she remembers me bringing this home from school when I was in third or fourth grade. It was an art project that we had worked on at school, she explained, and I was a good little artist. Now I’ll give her that much. I was a terrific artist when I was young. I still look at the drawings I created as a ten and eleven-year-old and it’s astounding. They look professional, but I remember creating each and every one of them. I do not remember this gourd, nor could I have painted quite that professionally. I was more into pencil drawings than paintings.

Well, I don’t like to frustrate my mom so when she insisted once again that I painted the gourd, I didn’t say anything else. I just accepted her gift and thought, “What will it hurt if she thinks I was a professional painter in third grade?!?”

Today Hannah was rummaging through the Christmas things that still haven’t been put away. We didn’t even have a tree this year, but we still haven’t managed to put away the few things we did have out. Hannah found the gourd and all the children were asking where it came from so I told them the story.

I said, “Why don’t we finish packing away all our Christmas things and we’ll put this up somewhere? You guys can drag it back out in 20 years and I’ll say, ‘Look, here’s that little gourd that Sarah painted in school when she was ten.’”

Sarah was sitting there and she said, “Mommy, we don’t go to school.”

Chris said, “I can just see it now. If you start losing your memory, then you’ll say, ‘Yes, you did, Sarah, don’t you remember painting this in third grade and you brought it home from school with you?’

“Then Sarah will say, ‘But Mommy, really, I didn’t paint that when I was in third grade, remember? You wouldn’t even let us go to school so that’s not possible. We were homeschooled.’

“And Mommy will say, ‘No, I remember. You brought this home from school when you were in third grade! I remember it so it must be true. And besides, what is homeschool?’”

It was funny. The kids were cracking up. The medicine I take already makes me forget things more easily, but I hope I don’t completely lose my memory. If I do, perhaps the children will point me back to writing such as then when I recognize that perhaps I shouldn’t argue about some things.

After all, sometimes a gourd is just a gourd.

Sonya Haskins
www.thehomeschooladvocate.com

Saturday, January 10, 2009

Important Letter for Small Business Owners

Dear Small Business Owner,

Most of you have probably heard of H.R. 4040 by now. This is the new Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act that was made law last August. For some reason, this law slipped in under the radar of everyone it will affect, but suddenly people everywhere are talking about it and there is a rushed attempt to try to clarify the meaning of the law, who it applies to, how companies are supposed to comply with the law, etc.

I believe that the sponsors of the original bill and the people who supported it did have good intentions. After all, we all want our children to be safe. The bill was hastily created, however, and there was not enough discussion about the implications of this new bill so now it threatens to bankrupt literally thousands of small businesses in the United States.

To quickly summarize the law, it basically requires testing on any and all materials or products that will come in contact with children. This includes toys, children’s furniture, clothing, audio materials, games, etc. The government has approved certain testing agencies and it will cost from $500 to $3000 to test EACH product. Let’s say you produce a children’s Bible and there is as boy version and a girl version with a different color cover on each. Because each of these items will have a different SKU, you will have to pay the fee to have EACH item tested! The same is true of hairbows, toys, shoes, everything that comes in contact with children age 12 and under.

If this sounds like a bad dream and something too sinister to be true, trust me, I thought it was at first as well. I heard about it last week and thought, surely someone has misunderstood something. After countless hours of research, however, I discovered that it IS true and this IS going to happen on February 10.

You can visit the CPSC website at http://www.cpsc.gov/about/cpsia/cpsia.html to read the law for yourself. There are also several memoranda on there that answer questions that have been raised. One of the main questions is whether or not retailers are allowed to sell inventory that was purchased before February 10, 2009 if it hasn’t been certified as safe. Unfortunately, the answer was not reassuring.

In regards to the sale of unsold inventory after February 10, 2009, the Consumer Safety Commission stated, “The Commission is aware of the potentially significant economic impact that the new Act could have on any remaining inventory next February. However, Congress stated that children’s products that did not meet the new lead limits would be treated as ‘a banned hazardous substance’ under the Federal Hazardous Substances Act as of February 10, 2009, and made it unlawful ‘to sell, offer for sale, manufacture for sale, distribute in commerce, or import into the United States’ any banned hazardous substance.”

In other words, they fully recognize that this is going to bankrupt thousands of businesses, but they have basically said that they do not care. It is not their place to worry about the impact of the laws they pass. While they are supposed to represent the people of the United States, they seem completely oblivious to the burden this will place on every business that caters to children as well as EVERY PARENT of children age 12 and under since parents will find it difficult to purchase used products after February 10 and they will be paying a much larger price for new products due to the testing requirements.

As a parent of five children, we rely largely on used products for our children. There was much discussion about whether or not the government actually expected this law to cover older products that are now being sold through thrift, second hand or consignment stores.

On January 8, 2009, there was a memorandum released to clarify the responsibility of thrift stores. The Consumer Product Safety Commission stated in the memorandum that, “Sellers of used children’s products, such as thrift stores and consignment stores, are not required to certify that those products meet the new lead limits, phthalates standard or new toy standards.”

That sounds great until you read the next paragraph, which states that, “The new safety law does not require resellers to test children’s products in inventory for compliance with the lead limit before they are sold. However, resellers cannot sell children’s products that exceed the lead limit and therefore should avoid products that are likely to have lead content, unless they have testing or other information to indicate the products being sold have less than the new limit.

Those resellers that do sell products in violation of the new limits could face civil and/or criminal penalties.”So in other words, they aren’t responsible for the testing, BUT if they sell a product that doesn’t comply, they could be fined.

Please contact your United States Senator or Representative TODAY and let him/her know that you strongly oppose this law and want it repealed immediately. While I recognize the fact that the sponsors of the original bill had good intentions, this is a horrible law and it needs to be stopped before it’s too late. Perhaps at a later date, our elected leaders can sponsor another bill that has been more carefully worded, but this one needs to be repealed.

Sonya Haskins, homeschool consultant
http://www.thehomeschooladvocate.com/

Unsafe Toys - How we handled a unsafe toy situation

When Sarah was a little over a year old, my mother and father-in-law gave her this cute little toy. It was one of those toys that’s supposed to be fun, yet encourage learning. With this particular toy, you were supposed to push down a huge button on the top of the toy and it would then make things inside the toy move around and make noise. The only problem was that the button that you pushed down was supposed to come back up slowly, but it didn’t. After you pushed it down, it popped right back up.

Now what’s wrong with a popping up button? When Chris and I played with the toy, we enjoyed it well enough and didn’t think much about the button. We did it several times and showed Sarah how to push it down and watch the things inside move. Then, she tried it. Well, imagine you’re a one year old with your little face as close to the toy as you can possibly get it. Sarah pushed the button down and it immediately popped back up and busted her little lip.

Rather than accusing my mother and father-in-law of purchasing a defective toy, calling the retailer to complain, or calling my attorney to sue someone, I simply called the toy manufacturer. After all, the box had a little place that said, "Comments / Suggestions?... " and then a toll free number was provided. I politely explained what was wrong with the toy and how it was a neat toy, but since it was designed for children ages 12-18 months, they might want to rethink the popping up button thing. We were on the phone for five or ten minutes and it seemed that the person I was talking with was really taking my comments seriously.

After a long conversation in which I thought they were taking notes, they proceeded to apologize for the inconvenience to my family. I told them it was no big deal, but that I thought they would want to know about the likelihood that this toy might harm the children it was intended to entertain.

I didn’t think much about the incident, especially since I put the toy away. We tried to play with it a couple more times, but it was obvious that Sarah was going to have a bloody lip every time she played with it so I just put it away. Then, a couple of weeks later, I received a letter in the mail from the company that made it. The letter contained an apology for the incident as well as some sort of postage thing that covered the cost of returning the product. They asked me to box it up and take it to the post office and this postage sticker would do the rest. It did. They assured me that I would be reimbursed for the inconvenience.

During the couple of weeks after that, we received gifts in the mail every other day or so! It was so funny. I never expected this to happen, but after the second or third gift, Sarah actually started looking for the mailman. I don’t remember all the toys she received, but there were about five different packages.

All of that was handled without a single attorney, lawsuit, or change of regulation. I realize some “unsafe” products have resulted in much more than a busted lip, but creating a law requiring government approval of everything a child comes into contact with is certainly NOT going to prevent injuries from happening. At the rate we’re going, we won’t have to worry about this at all because all the children are going to be homeless like their parents and no one will have any money to buy toys, diapers, clothing or other products after February 10 anyway! It’s bad enough that we seem to be having an economic depression, but now the government is killing the American dream. If this law is not amended, literally thousands of individuals will be put out of business on February 10.

Sonya
www.sonyahaskins.com

Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act - An Invasion of Our Government!

My husband and I have cared for lots of children. When you consider the number of foster children we’ve had in our home, the many times we’ve watched the children of our friends and relatives, and our own five blessings, it’s no wonder that our home is designed to be a fun atmosphere where children can be comfortable and safe.

Despite the fact that we’ve gone through literally dozens of toys, hundreds of diapers, and thousands of clothing items (especially when you count all the lost socks and hairbows individually), no one has ever lost a finger or been poisoned by lead in our home.

As of February 10, however, we will no longer be able to walk into a store and purchase items for our children as we’ve done in the past. Once again, our government has decided that they know what is best for our children and no retailer is allowed to sell any product for children ages 12 and under without the government’s stamp of approval.

There are several reasons that this new law is a huge problem, but I would have to say that the most immediate impact is the fact that it is going to bankrupt thousands of small businesses. It is essentially going to force all small businesses that cater to children to close their doors.

There was originally concern that the law would apply to USED products as well as new products and now e-mails are flying around the Internet stating that stores that sell used products are exempt. Read the law carefully and you’ll see the problem.

The press release sent out by the CPSC on January 8, 2009 stated that “Sellers of used children’s products, such as thrift stores and consignment stores, are not required to certify that those products meet the new lead limits, phthalates standard or new toy standards.”

It sounds like they are except from the certifications and sure enough, they do NOT have to have the products certified themselves, but read the next paragraph of this news release, which states, “The new safety law does not require resellers to test children’s products in inventory for compliance with the lead limit before they are sold. However, resellers cannot sell children’s products that exceed the lead limit and therefore should avoid products that are likely to have lead content, unless they have testing or other information to indicate the products being sold have less than the new limit. Those resellers that do sell products in violation of the new limits could face civil and/or criminal penalties.”

So in other words, they do not have to have the products certified, but if they sell products that haven’t been tested, they still will be liable for fines so they actually ARE responsible for making sure all the products that they sell are within the government’s new code of safety!!!

If we want our children safe, why should this bother any of us?

Families who purchase used materials, particularly clothing and toys, will no longer have the option of going to the local thrift store to purchase these items. No retailer is going to sell older used items for fear of violating the safety regulations. For families who are already barely making enough money to pay the bills, purchasing items at thrift stores and other resale shops is a necessity, not a luxury. We cannot do without these second-hand-stores and other resell events.

Many families have had to create home businesses to stay afloat and this law will deny them the right to do that. This new law will essentially put them out of business because they will not be able to pay the $500 or more per item to have it tested. Let’s say the mom down the street stays at home to care for her children and dad works. They don’t qualify for any sort of government aid and would prefer not to take it anyway. Instead, they’ve decided to work hard, take pride in their own accomplishments, and operate a small home business to supplement dad’s income. The business doesn’t require a lot of overhead because mom simply purchases ribbon, glue and hair clasps to make specialty children’s bows. These are sold at a local children’s specialty clothing shop for $5.00 each. Mom puts $2.00 worth of supplies into each hairbow, then she makes $1.50 profit and the store makes $1.50 profit on each bow. It’s not a lot, but over the course of a month, mom might make an extra $100 to help with groceries. With this new law, mom has to pay a minimum of $500 for EACH AND EVERY different type of bow she makes. If the ribbon is a different color or the clasps are slightly different or are a different size, she has to pay a separate fee for each of these different bows. Since she is only making $100 a month from the bows anyway, she cannot afford the fees to have each of her bows certified as “safe.” Even if she were making $500 per month, she wouldn’t be able to pay this fee for each of her different bow styles. So there goes the American dream for this family. Mom is very crafty and could make another type of product, but all of the products she is considering would be used by children, which would still require her to seek certification. Mom has to stop making the bows and even the loss of that $100 a month puts the family in a position where they have to start getting loans to make ends meet and before you know it, the family is so far behind that they are filing bankruptcy.

Many businesses purchased inventory before this law was ever created. While the press release from January 8 states that these businesses do not have to pay to have the items certified as safe, if the business is found selling non-certified items, then the businesses will be fined.
If all of this sounds too absurd to be true, rest assured that many of us thought the same thing until we started researching this issue. When things like this come up, and they seem to be happening more frequently in recent years, I sometimes think people think those of us who pay attention to these matters are alarmists and there is really nothing to be so concerned about, but this law will affect all of us. Go back to the example of the mom who makes the hairbows. Let’s say that she decided to go ahead and pay the $500 per bow to be allowed to still sell them. Well, she only makes 100 of each type before moving on to the next bow so she will have to increase the price of each bow by $5.00 just to pay for the testing. That means instead of purchasing a bow for $5.00, now your hairbow will be $10.00!! Think of how many things you purchase that come in contact with your children every day. Now think of paying double for all those items. Everything will go up in cost as a result of this law. I don’t know about the rest of you, but we can barely afford to pay our bills now, much less paying double for everything.

What can you do? The first thing I would recommend is to contact your United States Representative or Senator and tell them that you support measures to keep our children safe, but that you strongly oppose this law (H.R. 4040). It is going to bankrupt thousands of small businesses and I think the trickle effect of increased prices is going to bankrupt many thousands more businesses. This could in turn result in millions of bankruptcies of American families.

In recent years, products from China have had increasing amounts of lead or other toxic materials or have been proven unsafe for children. If poorly made products from China or other countries are the problem, then do something to ban imports or increase safety protocol for imported children’s products. But do not force hard-working families who are pursuing the American dream from the ability to create a business and pay their own way.

Sonya Haskins
http://www.thehomeschooladvocate.com/

P.S. If we really want to help our economy and our country, I think perhaps someone should start taking away the massive amount of power that the judicial branch of our government has gained in the past fifty years. When our forefathers created this country and developed our system of government, they specifically created the three branches of government so that they would have checks and balances on one another, but the judicial branch has gained way to much power and now frivolous lawsuits, greedy attorneys, and immoral judges have created an environment where our judicial system is basically dictating how we run our country. Personally, I would rather be allowed to pick and choose which products I purchase for my children in a society with free trade than on where the government dictates what is or is not allowed to be sold. I honestly believe that living in a free country also includes the right to purchase substandard products! That may sound crazy, but if a large (or small) company is creating poor quality products, I believe in a system where they will eventually go out of business. That’s the way the system works in a free market society, but now the government is going to be putting the small businesses that create the best quality products out of business. This is unacceptable!

Tuesday, January 6, 2009

Never a Dull Moment

My husband, children and I visited my family this weekend in Soddy-Daisy, Tennessee. On the way home, we stopped at the Cracker Barrel to eat a late lunch / early dinner. We had a very nice waitress and the food was delicious. After we ate, we sat there for a few minutes talking. Micah and I were on the same side of the table and there was a large family sitting directly behind us. After we finished eating, an older gentleman turned around and it was obvious that he wanted to strike up a conversation.

"Hello there, young man," he began. "How are you today?"

Micah told him that he was fine and the man said, "Do you play football?"

Micah just kind of looked at him and so the man said, "What's your sport? Do you play football?"

I was sitting there thinking, "Gee, couldn't the guy have asked him the boiling point of water, the name of the first vehicle in outerspace or something easy like that..."

But instead he again said, "Do you watch a lot of football?"

Sure enough, Micah said, "I don't know what that is."

Of course the man looked at Micah - and THEN AT ME - as if we were from another planet!

Now to the child's credit, it was very noisy in the restaurant and the man did have an accent and so we couldn't hear him very well. Instead of pointing out the obvious difficulties, however, I said, "Micah doesn't play sports. He is more of a science kind of guy. He wants to be a scientist when he grows up."

The man looked at Micah and Micah said, "I want to work for the Army Core of Engineers."

Hmmm. That gave the man something to think about. He said something else about sports and I said, "We just don't really play any sports, but he does know what football is. He just misunderstood you."

The man decided to change direction at that point and said, "The Army Core of Engineers, huh? Are you familiar with the Oak Ridge Power Plant? I used to work there. I helped develop various cooling systems to test."

After that we had a nice conversation that was more in line with things we were familiar with.

He proceeded to tell us about his background, his family, his work history, and all the while I was wondering what his family thought about the fact that he had talked much more with us than with them. Meanwhile, my children had all finished eating, the to-go boxes had been packed and everyone at my table was anxious to leave so I politely excused us from the table. It was nice to meet him, but we needed to go.

I told Hannah and Christopher that they could pick out a small bag of candy to share. Basically, the day before, the other children had picked out something and it was enough to last for a few days, but Christopher and Hannah had chosen a very small candy so we told them they could get something else and share it so they each picked one of those small 2 for $1.00 bags of candy. I asked Chris to pay for them while I went and gave the waitress her tip. When I came back out, he was still standing in the same spot and still had the bags of candy in his hand.

I took the candy from him and told him to just take the children to the van and I would pay. He walked everyone to the van and I was standing there with the candy and Hannah, who stayed behind with me. I went to the register and paid for the candy, the lady put it in a bag, and I walked out to the van. When I got to the van, Chris handed me some change. I asked him what it was for and he said, "It's the change from that five dollar bill you gave me to pay for the candy."

I said, "You mean to tell me you actually paid for the candy?" He said yes. I asked him why he had neglected to tell me this and he said that he just didn't think of it. When I asked him why he didn't have the candy in a bag, he said, "She didn't offer me one." I asked him what he thought I was going to stay behind and pay for and he told me he had no idea, but he didn't really think about it. That just figures.

So then I go marching back into the store with the two bags of candy to UNpay for them.
I take them up to the counter and tried to explain to the cashier that she had just double charged me for these two bags of candy because she had charged my husband and me for the same candy. I asked her if she remembered charging him and she said yes. And she definitely remembered me. We had chatted some. So I handed her the candy and she said, "So you want to return these?"

I said, "Yes, I need my money back."

She scanned them and started to put them behind the register. I said, "But I want the candy back." She said, "But you said you wanted to return them." I said, "Yes, but I only want to RETURN them. I don't want you to keep them. You do the return and give me my money back, but then I need to keep the candy."

She looked at me like I'd lost my mind.

I said, "You just charged my husband and me for the SAME two bags of candy. I didn't buy two different bags. These are literally the same two bags that he paid for."

She looked at me like she didn't really believe me and she wouldn't give me the candy.

I said, "OK. Here's what happened...." I explained the whole situation to her again, emphasizing the part that he paid her for the candy and then she didn't put it in a bag so when I saw him standing there with the candy, I took it from him and paid for those same two bags again. I think she got it at that point or at least she must have understood that I wasn't going to leave without my money and the candy because she gave me both.

As I turned around to leave, the woman standing behind me was laughing and she said, "That sounds like something me and my husband would do."

I guess it was a bit funny. Between the older gentleman and trying to buy the two bags of candy, it ended up taking us about 45 minutes to leave the place after we had eaten. Oh well. At least the food was good. And there is never a dull moment.

Sonya

Monday, January 5, 2009

Trying to Recover....

My husband and I took the children to Chattanooga this weekend. I really just wanted to visit everyone. We will not go back until this summer and I just have this feeling of foreboding that I needed to go now...

Other than visiting, the main reason we went was to meet some older relatives and see photos of my mamaw and papaw and other relatives that I had never seen. My aunt and I visited relatives for a couple of hours on Saturday and literally it wore me out so much that I ended up having to rest for the remainder of the day, then I got up for a couple more hours, but I had to go back to bed last night and I didn't get up until 1:00 today!!!

I can't believe how much the least amount of exertion is affecting me. It's horrible.

Anyway, since I slept so late, we got a late start home today. We returned a while ago and I wanted to post a couple of notes on the digest because we need to find the bird a home and sell that washer and dryer, but I'm heading to bed now. I am so incredibly sick. I don't know if it's because of the travel or what, but I am just worn out. My abdomen is hurting SO SO SO bad and I feel like I just need to throw up. That's a new thing. Usually I just hurt and sometimes I feel nauseous, but this is so much worse. I also have a bad headache coming on.

I won't be going out much now. That just makes me plain depressed!! I'm not used to that. :) The medicine has started making me feel worse already and that's what happened after I had Hannah. I literally sleep around 16 hours a day on average and sometimes up to 20 hours with this medicine. This is honestly worse than the pain from the blood clots in many ways - especially because it's so debilitating, but hopefully it will keep me alive. I have a few hours each day where I can function well and I am so VERY thankful for that.

People ask how I manage to get things done if things are really as bad as I say. Some people look at me and because I LOOK normal and I try to keep a smile on my face, it's as if they think I'm making this whole thing up. It's almost funny now, but I've learned so much about prejudice through all this. To answer how I "do" it, I say that ... I have a very helpful husband. My children are INCREDIBLY wonderful and they see how difficult it is for me. While I put on my best face for everyone else, they see me when I can't walk or get out of bed. That's sad for me, but this has also helped them become the sensitive helpful children they are. Finally, I've learned to appreciate the little time I do have and I make the most of it. That's part of the reason I haven't been on the digest. I only have a few hours per day when I function well. I don't really have any "extra" time any more so I have to use what I have to get as much done as possible in as short a period as possible. On days when I feel worse, I can't even get to the computer. Last week one day, I managed to heat up a casserole that someone brought us and I made some corn pudding to go with it. I was so proud of the fact that I had heated up the casserole and made the corn pudding myself... Considering the fact that most days I can't do that, you learn to be thankful for the small things. My house is a total disaster area, but the kids do the best they can. The messiness is difficult for me to deal with since I kept an IMMACULATE house before Hannah was born and that's another thing I've had to relinquish. But, you can build Godly character in a home whether it's clean or dirty so I try to keep it in perspective. :)

Also, the Lord has graciously allowed me the opportunity to write another book, I need to conserve energy for that task. I believe all things do work together for the Glory of God so I pray that in some way this latest difficulty will help me write something that will be more helpful to those readers who will see the book in 2010. I am just incredibly thankful that I am able to write. Despite all the pain, at least my fingers work without any pain at all! When I'm working on an essay or a paper or book for the purpose of helping other homeschoolers (or non-homeschooling parents), I try to say what the Lord wants me to say, not what I want to say. Even on days when I have a headache, it makes it more difficult to write, but it's almost like I can still do it so long as I can continue to type because I've really prayed about the material in advance and it comes out naturally. Sometimes the pain in my head, abdomen, back, or legs is just so unbearable that I can't stand it. When it's that bad, the only way to keep from exploding is to take medicine to help me sleep through the worst of it.

Thank you all for your prayers, encouragement, and help. I hope no one minds the update. We received many Christmas cards and I don't know when I'll ever have a chance to write individual notes to say hello or even thank you where appropriate. I just don't have the energy. Even now I really need to go. I am in such pain that I can't sit here and type any longer. But it is so encouraging to me to know that there are some of you praying for me and my family regularly. I covet those prayers.

Your Sister in Christ,
Sonya